The spectacle of the poor. Or: ‘Wow!! Awesome. Nice to know that people care!’

On the night of 14 November 2012, a police officer of the New York Police Department encountered a homeless person while performing his duties around Times Square. He gave him a pair of boots and while doing so, he was photographed by a tourist. The photo was posted on Facebook, receiving in a few days more than 1.6 million visits. The paper unfolds the reasons why this particular image and story have gone, as the media has put it, ‘viral’. The paper investigates the spaces that have emerged in the media elongation of DePrimo's practice of care and, introducing the notion of ‘spectacle of the poor’, it argues that this specific case simplifies the dominant western framings around matter of ‘caring for the poor’. The political and cultural consequences of these framings are investigated, and reflections on how to tackle them provided.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2014.91674

Improved water–gas shift performance of Au/NiAl LDHs nanostructured catalysts via CeO2 addition

Supported gold on co-precipitated nanosized NiAl layered double hydroxides (LDHs) was studied as an effective catalyst for medium-temperature water–gas shift (WGS) reaction, an industrial catalytic process traditionally applied for the reduction in the amount of CO in the synthesis gas and production of pure hydrogen. The motivation of the present study was to improve the performance of the Au/NiAl catalyst via modification by CeO2. An innovative approach for the direct deposition of ceria (1, 3 or 5 wt.%) on NiAl-LDH, based on the precipitation of Ce3+ ions with 1M NaOH, was developed. The proposed method allows us to obtain the CeO2 phase and to preserve the NiAl layered structure by avoiding the calcination treatment. The synthesis of Au-containing samples was performed through the deposition–precipitation method. The as-prepared and WGS-tested samples were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, N2-physisorption and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy in order to clarify the effects of Au and CeO2 loading on the structure, phase composition, textural and electronic properties and activity of the catalysts. The reduction behavior of the studied samples was evaluated by temperature-programmed reduction. The WGS performance of Au/NiAl catalysts was significantly affected by the addition of CeO2. A favorable role of ceria was revealed by comparison of CO conversion degree at 220◦C reached by 3 wt.% CeO2-modified and ceria-free Au/NiAl samples (98.8 and 83.4%, respectively). It can be stated that tuning the properties of Au/NiAl LDH via CeO2 addition offers catalysts with possibilities for practical application owing to innovative synthesis and improved WGS performance

Maria Nallino (1908-1974) and the Birth of Arabic and Islamic studies at Ca’ Foscari

This essay, based on bibliographic and archival material, focuses on the academic figure Maria Nallino, a scholar whose voluminous body of work ranges from classicism to modernity with equal fluency and expertise. Daughter of the famous Orientalist Carlo Alfonso Nallino (1872-1938), whose work she gathered and actively promoted, her arrival at Ca’ Foscari (1962) inaugurated Arabic and Islamic studies in Venice

Effects of Synthesis on the Structural Properties and Methane Partial Oxidation Activity of Ni/CeO2 Catalyst

Nickel catalysts supported on homemade CeO2 oxide were prepared by two procedures intending to achieve different degree of metal-support interaction. One method consisted of a co-precipitation that was assisted by microwave; the other method was based on a modified wetness impregnation in the presence of the organic complexing ligand, nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA). The support and catalysts were characterized by temperature programmed reduction (TPR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. Significant differences in the structure, in redox properties and in the elemental surface composition emerged. The catalytic behavior in the partial oxidation of methane was tested at atmospheric pressure, in a range of temperature between 400–800 °C, using diluted feed gas mixture with CH4/O2 = 2 and GHSV= 60,000 mL g−1 h−1. Moreover, the effect of the catalyst reduction pretreatment was investigated. The better catalytic performance of the microwave-assisted sample as compared to the NTA prepared sample was attributed to the stronger interaction of nickel with CeO2. Indeed, according to the structural and reducibility results, an adequate electronic contact between the metal and the support favors the formation of oxygen vacancies of ceria and inhibits the sintering of the catalyst active species, with an improvement of the catalytic performance

Hydrodesulfurization cobalt-based catalysts modified by gold

Cobalt catalysts supported on amorphous SiO2 and ordered mesoporous silica (MCM-41) were prepared by incipient wetness impregnation. Gold was added by consecutive impregnation or by co-impregnation. The materials were characterised by XPS, XRD and TPR techniques and evaluated in the hydrodesulfurization (HDS) of thiophene in order to investigate the effect of the noble metal on the structure and on the catalytic behaviour of the supported cobalt. Co/MCM-41 exhibited higher HDS activity and higher stability than the Co/SiO2. Moreover, in contrast to silica case, the gold impregnated MCM-41, produced an enhancement of the cobalt catalytic activity, and this is likely to be related to an increased cobalt reducibility. Both the support and the addition of gold improve the cobalt dispersion

An innovative microwave method for large scale preparation of nanocatalysts for industrial applications

Nanostructured metal catalysts are of great interest because of their marked catalytic performances. Consequently, different synthetic methods have been reported in literature but, up to now, all these methods present several drawbacks for their application on industrial scale. Today microwave chemistry is experiencing an exponential growth and it is generally performed using a closed metal cavity, i.e. a microwave oven. However, the current commercial systems present a number of relevant limitations. Multi-disciplinary applications are complicated or even impossible. Therefore industrial scale-up is not straightforward at all and requires very high project and investment costs. Now, we have applied a new microwave method enabling the possibility of working without the constraints. The method is safe and cheap, it enables to obtain the utmost efficiency and control also for industrial applications, without resorting to an ordinary oven. We have successfully adopted our procedure for the synthesis “in situ” of ruthenium, palladium and silver nanocatalysts on different supports that present little average diameters, good morphology and very narrow sizes distribution with an absolute reproducibility. The reduction of the metal was also confirmed by XPS measurements. These nanostructured ruthenium catalysts resulted particularly efficient, in terms of activity and selectivity, in different selective catalytic reactions, such as the hydrogenation of benzene to cyclohexene and of phenol to cyclohexanone. The nanostructured palladium nanocatalysts have been employed in the hydrogenation of cyclohexene to cyclohexane and of benzaldehyde to benzyl alcohol and these results are also promising in an industrial perspective

Influence of fluorine on the synthesis of anatase TiO2for photocatalytic partial oxidation: Are exposed facets the main actors?

Anatase TiO2samples were synthesized in the presence of different amounts of HF acid with the aim of understanding the effect of the presence of fluorine on the photocatalytic activity. It is well known that the presence of fluoride ions influences the photocatalytic performance by adsorption on the surface of TiO2and that they are capping agents in the control of specific exposed facets. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, nitrogen adsorption-desorption measurements, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-vis spectrophotometry, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The photocatalytic activity was evaluated in gas-solid and liquid-solid systems by monitoring the oxidation of 2-propanol and 4-methoxybenzyl alcohol, respectively. Some differences in the physico-chemical properties of the different samples were noted; in particular, the presence of F-caused a net decrease of the specific surface area, an increase of the crystallinity degree and an increase of the conductivity, whilst only a slight difference was noted in the distribution of the exposed anatase facets. Moreover, an increase in the total oxidation of 2-propanol and in the selectivity to 4-methoxybenzaldehyde was observed

Gold catalysis in Southern Italy

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